accies1874

He's not been great but I think he's brought more to the table than Patterson. He can cross, is dangerous from set-pieces and is a marginally more reliable defender. Everton's results have improved since moving Young to RB and bringing in Mykolenko at LB, and while I won't claim that that's because Patterson's been dropped (they've won the two games he's started since then), I think it's unfair to class Dyche as a "fanny" because he's sticking with a defence that has got him results. I also don't think we've seen it have an effect on his confidence as he put in a pretty good performance against West Ham after losing his place then, imo, generally did well against Norway too (though I know others disagree with that).

I sometimes think that it's part of the drama of football that an inconsequential infringement in the box can lead to such a high chance of a goal, but @velo army is right that it's somewhat devalued drama, especially now that VAR's involved. Getting a penalty in the heat of the moment is a brilliant feeling, however when you see the Stockley Park Marks scouring footage for an unnoticed handball in order to present an ~80% chance of a goal, it just feels a bit shit.

He was playing really poorly at the start of the season when he was starting every game though. He was first choice at the start of the season, but his unreliability meant that Dyche dropped Patterson and brought Young in at right-back.

Arrival is wonderful on first watch and even better the second time around.

Much improved from Villa after the half-time subs, Tielemans in particular. For the first time in a wee while, McGinn's been much better for his club than his country. It's great to see him playing under an excellent manager who's willing to and capable of getting the best out of him.

I think those incidents are hard to give a penalty for because, more often than not, both the defender and attacker are at it. When an attacker gets a run on the defender and the defender pulls them back, that's a much clearer penalty and should be given.

Villa have been pretty crap but their high line and McGinn's positioning are working quite well. Think Spurs have it in them to exploit the former though.

Folk are just daft. They post their banal "when's the penalty coming " chat then pretend to be raging when Rangers do get a clear penalty like today's.

So is Gartenmann in on the conspiracy too?

I think the players have mostly earned the benefit of the doubt this season, but yesterday was horrendous and a repeat of some of the issues we've seen throughout the season. Add in the fact that several players dropped absolute stinkers (pretty much all of them except Newbury who acquitted himself really well) and the result was never in doubt. You can see from the lack of quality off the bench why Rankin has been loyal to some of the underperformers, so imo it's just a case of hoping that individuals can improve rather than changing the team too much, as well as Rankin setting them up better to defend counter-attacks.

Think it's to do with inviting a press. Means that the opposition will press and you'll still have the ball centrally to play either way as opposed to it being with a CB on one side which makes it easier to cut off angles.

They got one home draw; the first leg was played at home because they earned a seeded spot (same as us). I don't think them being lucky to beat us in 2012 to ultimately finish 5th in the group is an example of The Luck of the Welsh. Again, plenty of other countries have had a player as good as or better than Bale yet they've at the very least performed equally to Wales. I just think this is all a case of confirmation bias. When Wales succeed folk on here think that they're some uniquely lucky team spanning seven or eight years, but when they don't (like their abysmal performances in the World Cup) I suppose their luck just didn't fancy turning up?

This makes a lot more sense than "omg does anyone else think Wales are soooo lucky?!"

Yes correct

The Wales stuff in this neck of the woods is quite strange. Obviously I don't like them as they're one of our closest rivals, but all the "jammy b*****ds" chat is similar to the stuff last year when folk were trying to convince themselves that the Republic of Ireland were some dirty, hammer-throwing mob when in reality they were on an even keel with us across the two games. It's like people are trying to convince themselves of reasons to dislike a team rather than just simply disliking them. I suppose Wales got lucky in that they had one of the best British players in a generation (that's no luckier than Norway or Slovenia who have been horseshit despite having their own world class player), but they've also done a lot of work over the years to build squads that perform beyond what you might think they're capable of on paper. There's not been much variance from Coleman to Giggs to Page, so unless there have been eight years of luck as opposed to that just being nature of international football, my take is that you're all just talking shite.

53. Bottoms - Cinema Great supporting cast which makes the world feel alive while also being an exaggerated version of high school life. The football team never change out of their kits, the (only?) teacher openly reads a magazine depicting scantily clad women, a random student is locked in a cage - these all add up to make it feel like this high school is a living, breathing place despite the stupidity of it all. And the film is stupid. I was smiling along during the climax due to just how stupid it was. It's disarmingly violent at points, which is just accepted and barely addressed, and uses violence as a punchline to good effect. The worldbuilding from the supporting cast was what I liked most about Bottoms, but that's not to take anything away from the two leads who bounce off of everyone really well, kind of providing a more grounded cynicism to the nonsense going on in their school. This is the third film I've seen Rachel Sennott in, and she's been the standout performer in three pretty different roles. The combination of the riffing between the actors and the stylised setting made for a really funny film, though there were things about it that made me wonder if the script is actually quite weak: the credits take pride in how much improv there was, some of the weaker jokes seemed to be more scripted, and the structure flits between being fluid and dully regimented. Minor complaints, though, as none of that affected my enjoyment of the film, however the dodgy projection in Hamilton's VUE almost did. It was the first time I'd been there since seeing Pearl back in March and, given how bad the projection was in their biggest screen, I won't be back any time soon. 54. The Royal Hotel - Cinema I was really looking forward to this, as Kitty Green's other film, The Assistant, was one of my favourites from 2020. That had a pretty good script with a brilliant lead performance from Julia Garner (who also leads this) but, most of all, had a lot of filmmaking techniques that I found really interesting. The Royal Hotel seems to me to have been a bit more conventional in its storytelling compared to The Assistant - not compared to other films of its ilk though - but treads familiar ground thematically as they're both about Julia Garner being landed in a toxic male environment - a movie studio in The Assistant and a dingy Australian hotel pub here. They're also both slowly paced and very reliant on their atmosphere, characters of Death by 1000 Cuts approach to building tension, depicting very real scenarios and inviting the viewer to share the protagonist's discomfort and helplessness. The BBFC gave The Royal Hotel an 18 which, combined with the trailer, led me on that it was going to have a much more bombastic conclusion - despite what I learned about Kitty Green's style from The Assistant - but it's really just about simmering tension and paranoia playing out in a way that leaves enough doubt about characters' intensions for it to be engaging but gives you a fair sense that they're pretty shite people which creates unease. The 18 certificate is just because it's set in Australia and they call everyone "c**t." Where it felt most different to The Assistant for me was that the toxic workplace of a movie studio is, to an extent, a manmade environment where there is something more societal about The Royal Hotel's setting, sort of like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre where it leaves you asking questions about the set of circumstances that created this environment. Another difference was the fact that Julia Garner had a pal in this one, her fellow backpacker Jessica Henwick who's a bit more of a partier than her. This led to a wee bit of friction, but, more importantly, it results in a greater sense of loneliness when they have a difference of opinion, as losing a friend in a story can often be more impactful than simply not having one in the first place. I've also seen/heard other reviews which said that the film beginning during their holiday poses questions about their friendship, what they're running away from etc., and while that wasn't really going through my head as I was watching it, I can see how it would have that effect on other people. It's a solid follow-up to an excellent debut, and I'm still interested to see what Kitty Green does next as she's now made two films with really tactile environments and has a clear style. I wouldn't say that folk have to see this in the cinema though. Hugo Weaving's in it too, but if you're like me then you won't actually know it's him until you get home and check the cast. 55. Paris Memories - Digital Rental A film about a woman reconciling with herself after surviving the 2015 Paris terrorist attack. It starts as a day-in-the-life piece which lingers in a serene moment where people have no idea what's coming, then that's immediately cut through by an attack in a restaurant. That jarring tonal shift is a perfect depiction of a terrorist attack and is the kind of thing that is likely to stick with me, but it's only around 15/20 minutes into the film. The rest is about the main character trying to find closure through various means which feel very true to how someone would cope with such an event.

Nah he's just a poor penalty taker at the moment. Missed in the Youth League last season and his other one against Hungary earlier in the year wasn't great either. All pretty much the same penalty too. It was a pretty shite team performance. Too easy to play around our 5-2-3 and there wasn't much cohesion on the ball.

I'm guessing they changed it for the World Cup because of that very issue.

All 26 players made the matchday squad at the last World Cup

He was dropped for the September camp after moving to Luton, but he's been called up for every other one when fit.

He was best suited to Stuart Taylor's football so I can imagine him doing OK under Murray. He did very well when he was signed in 2022 then had a big drop-off last season until around the turn of the year when he started playing well again. Aggressive CB and good in the air despite being quite small. Very bad in wide areas and not all that technical but will try to be progressive with his passing.

Yeah Brown was crap last night but I don't think Clarke will bomb out a squad regular after just one start. Dykes was probably just as terrible when he came on.

I think it was a bit deflating that we followed up qualification for Euro 2020 with two defeats (albeit good/decent performances) then an underwhelming March 2021 camp. That led to Clarke having changed things about quite a bit by the time we got to June, and a bit more uncertainty around certain players (O'Donnell, Marshall. Dykes). The World Cup playoff getting moved did have a negative impact on us, but I don't think that was anything to do with momentum.

He's one of a few who could hit 50 caps around the time of the Euros (Christie, Armstrong, Hanley and Tierney* the others) We had one player on 50+ caps at the last Euros (Craig Gordon, who didn't play) but we could end up finishing the tournament with nine this time. Hopefully that'll have a positive effect in some form. *Tierney's very much a long shot as it would require us making the semis and him playing every game between now and then

Yip I thought it'd be McTominay, but I do remember hearing that McGinn was competing with Luiz for being Villa's taker so it might be something he's improved in. Pretty much all of our best penalty takers are backup players (Ferguson, Shankland and even John Souttar), so it's a good thing that we don't get them very often.